, 08.10.2022 09:04 AM

My latest: I love the smell of the rule of law in the morning

If there’s dust, it ain’t settling.

The dust stirred up by the FBI’s visit to Donald Trump’s Florida compound, that is. The Right is apoplectic and the Left is ecstatic.

Long term, neither are likely to be happy. Certain political and legal realities are at play.

Consider these five points:

One, the precedent. Democrats may be delighted that their most-hated political adversary may soon be facing indictment. But that’s short-term thinking. Long-term, the Republicans will one day be returned to power – in the White House, the Senate, the House, or all three. And you can be certain that the GOP will be working overtime to return the favor with Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, or whomever is then a Democrat of significance. Count on it.

Two, notwithstanding the braying and screeching over on Fox News, it wasn’t an FBI “raid.” It was a lawful search and seizure, done pursuant to a warrant, and it was approved by the director of the FBI – a Trump appointee. The FBI action would have been approved by a senior judge, too, as well as an army of Justice Department lawyers. Trump knows why they were there – he has a copy of the search warrant. That said, the FBI has done something that has never been done before – and they better have the goods. (My hunch: they have the goods.)

Three, as a smart political friend said to me in the aftermath: “Right now, this looks like they’re going after Trump for neglecting to return a late library book.” And it’s true: going after Trump for neglecting to return some classified documents? That’s ridiculous. That’s chickenshit. It may be a crime for archivists, but no one else cares. If Trump was selling the contents to parties unknown, however, that’s clearly a crime. Or, the search for classified documents is a pretext…

Which is point four. As assorted pundits have noted, the FBI loves using minor crimes to find evidence of major crimes. As in, use the classified documents offence as a pretext to search for the bigger prize: evidence of Trump’s wrongdoing on January 6, and in overturning the election result. Ask Al Capone: the feds are really, really good at using smaller offences to prosecute bigger offences. It works.

Five: I cling to the view that no American president will ever be prosecuted in a court of law for high crimes or misdemeanors. Impeached in the House of Repreantatives? Sure. Trump has been, twice, to no apparent effect. Big deal. But hauling the Mango Mussolini into a courtroom in handcuffs and an orange pantsuit? Impossible. It’s not going to happen. Ever.

That’s all said, I didn’t see this one coming, and neither didn’t anyone else. It’s big and and getting bigger.

And the dust? It ain’t settling anytime soon.

28 Comments

  1. Lynn says:

    I don’t know where this will go. I cannot believe that cheeto man is still above ground with his reputed dietary intake. I wonder if the stress will get to him and impact his health.

    I have been the holder of the files and books and we take it rather seriously. I know that it seems odd to most that we will fight with a bureaucrat or department to demand the full file and the copies of stuff. But someone has to do it and be hated by those who wish to hide the information or not follow the records act.

    The obligation to keep complete records and accurate records is real to records managers and librarians. We owe it to future researchers.
    and really….

    Any law student or gov’t peon knows that you leave the file or book and just remove the contents. It takes longer to discover the missing docs that way. Boxes, entire files we miss right away. Slice those pages out, replace files with blank sheets of paper, etc and it could be a long time before someone sees the problem. /s
    Trump can’t even get the theft of document right.

    • william shakesfeare says:

      Trump is too dumb to have come up with this himself. He sat there in the last month at his “secrets for sale”
      booth and took orders and waited for the highest bidder.
      Who knows what he’s sold so far but Jared seems to be one of the main beneficiaries.
      And the criming just keeps going on.

  2. mike says:

    Warren,
    I could not help feeling you wrote this article with a tinge of humor mixed in but is there anything funny going on with this raid on Trump.
    Is there any doubt that the FBI has been weaponized to deal with the opponents on the left?
    We should all be horror stricken that in a free country, a police force is being used to strike fear into those that oppose the political views of the left.
    Here in Canada, we have witnessed the prosecution of Tamara Lich and her crew. Now, I am not condoning what was done to the people of Ottawa for those weeks. But surely as Canadians, we should all be upset to see that Lich has been heavily prosecuted and harassed compared to others that have been charged with much more serious crimes.
    Surely, we as Canadians can’t be happy that our government touched the bank accounts of those that supported Lich.
    These are not joking matters.

    • Mike,

      I don’t give two-shits about Lich if she repeatedly violated her bail conditions as has been alleged. If true, she needs to fill that empty space between her ears with something called a brain.

    • Sean says:

      Tamara Lich is a public nuisance to the entire nation and deserves every bit of prosecution / punishment she gets. Touch those bank accounts. Hunt…down… every… dollar.

    • The Doctor says:

      The police force in this case, the FBI, was acting on a duly issued search warrant that was approved by a federal judge. Apparently a Republican-appointed judge. How is that in any way improper or a “weaponization” of the FBI?

      If you have a specific allegation of procedural or legal irregularities in the issuance of this search warrant, then please make that specific factual allegation, instead of regurgitating stale Trumpist talking points.

      • The Doctor says:

        Then there’s the fact that the current head of the FBI, which you claim is some Fifth Column for the Democracts, was appointed by . . . wait for it . . . Donald J. Trump.

    • william shakesfeare says:

      Serenity now.

  3. Obvious Sock Puppet #12 says:

    Good analysis, Warren.

    I’d add: Donald Trump has a permanent Secret Service escort,
    and (having sat in the White House) he will have one for life.

    They serve as his bodyguards, of course. And, having several dozen people
    with guns drop by “suddenly”, in or out of uniform, with possibly forged ID,
    with (at first) unknown intentions, probably wouldn’t sit well with them.

    In other words, we can infer that the SS were informed in advance, & likely
    well in advance. They knew the FBI were coming; so very probably President
    Trump knew also. As for President Biden saying he didn’t know, that might
    even be true (separation of powers, integrity of an investigation, etc.), but I
    kind of doubt it. In other words, the majority of what all the people close to
    the matter are saying, is just theatre. Basically, we are all watching a movie.

    • william shakesfeare says:

      No, we can’t infer anything. Stick to the facts when you know them. Try to keep up.

      • Obvious Sock Puppet #12 says:

        Identify clearly and precisely what you believe to be the flaw in my
        reasoning. I stuck to the facts. Tell me an important fact that I’ve
        omitted or gotten wrong. Explain why the inference is unlikely or
        impossible. I made a case; all you’ve made is a claim.

        • Sean says:

          I think W.S. was referring to the “inference” that the SS knew about the warrant execution. There is no inference. It is already in the public record that the SS did know about the warrant.

          The reason Trump is upset is because he didn’t understand the seriousness of what he has done because he’s an imbecile.

  4. Warren,

    Trump knows what could get him in the slammer and it ain’t January 6 — the guy allegedly was burning documents in The White House on the day and in the days following the insurrection. So much for that one.

    It’s the NY state AG that got from him The Fifth for four hours in a civil litigation. That’s going after him where he lives. In addition, other little rats will rat on him to avoid jail sentences re: The Trump Organization. So, he should be already shitting his pants cause the fun is a coming and in short order.

  5. Sean says:

    In my experience with bullies – be it in the workplace, in sports or family – the only reason anyone enables bullies is the *belief* that the bullies are winning or are in charge… Their enablers believe they can get a piece of the action. The sociology is indeed that simple.

    The moment the perception of winning is doubted, bullies are dropped faster than a used COVID mask. Trump’s poll numbers are reflective of that. His entire rise to the top of the political heap was based on the idea that he was a winner at business and ordinary blue collar folks who felt left out wanted to feel like they were part of that greatness. The takedown of HRC only added to that mythology.

    The moment he is pictured in handcuffs… and this is broadcast worldwide… his supporters will get it and intuitively understand that the man is a fucking loser and they will move on.

  6. Shawn says:

    No ones going to believe you, why waste your time. Democrats haven’t followed the laws and they never get raided. That’s the issue. And considering other witch-hunts that turned up nothing on trump, there is ZERO reason to believe he broke any laws at all. This is nothing to do with the rule of law. Trumps endorsements have been cleaning up the States primary’s, demented ten % for the big guy pedo Joe’s poll numbers are in the tank and there is a huge shift of minority voters going right especially Hispanics. This is the deep state and the globalist trying to stop Trump in 2024. All the so called experts have been wrong about the so called Russia collusion bullshit and everything else. This is pathetic for a Constitutional Republic. But what can I expect from people or peoples who think it is okay or necessary for a dictatorial prime minister to call out the Emergency act on peaceful protestors.

    • Robert White says:

      I wrote to the Federal Government of Canada politicians and requested the Emergencies Act invocation based upon lack of resources to handle the evictions, towing capacity, and uncivilized insurrectors messing up the joint and refusing to leave.

      In addition, they were using children as human shields which proves their cowardly act is indeed the act of cowards because children didn’t deserve to be living in those types of conditions IMHO.

      Our chief of police was calling for enough power to save lives and accidents from occuring. All levels of governance handled the issue appropriately too.

      Freeland was likely the official that called martial law powers not Trudeau.

      If you think the Freedumb Truckers were law abiding citizens you’re drinking opposition kool-aid. They were acting criminally and with criminal intent to intimidate governance through their menacing of the downtown core neighbourhoods & the Parliamentary precinct.

      RW

      • Gilbert says:

        If the protestors had been natives upset about historical injustices, environmental activists or people concerned about black lives, the PM wouldn’t have run away. He would have met them. He wouldn’t have frozen the bank accounts of those protestors, either. I call that communism.

        • Gilbert,

          First off, left or right should make absolutely no difference. Response should only be based on con

          duct and threat assessment. Period.

          It’s one thing to say that the government is illegitimate and that a PM should resign. That’s fair game in a democracy. It’s quite another when plans are put in place to take action to achieve that end or terrorize a city until a PM resigns. That’s what SOME OF THEM did or were planning and they deserved and got the slammer for it. In short, for that small group, well fuck ’em!

          As an aside, it would be nice if Leslyn finally clued in about the rule of law. After all, she’s only a lawyer. Stop trying to turn Lich into some kind of martyr which she definitely isn’t.

        • Sean says:

          Communism should never be lowered to any association with the likes of Justin Trudeau.

    • The Doctor says:

      Wow, you get the prize for cramming as many Trumpist talking points into a single post as humanly possible. It’s like a cut-and-paste job from the Breitbart comments section.

      BTW I suggest you go take a look at the Republican-controlled Senate Intelligence Committee Report on Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election. Because it appears that you are not aware of its existence.

  7. william shakesfeare says:

    The rats are stacked at the “Exits of Evil”
    Keep writing Warren and maybe we can finally push some of them through to Rikers.

  8. william shakesfeare says:

    Please don’t think of the FBI search as a raid. Think of it as a tongue loosener.

  9. Douglas W says:

    5 solid points.

    Dems are acting like the GOP will control the House & Senate after the mid terms.

  10. Gilbert says:

    I hope Donald Trump doesn’t run for president again. He’s made many enemies. The Republicans have better options.

    The problem is he might be more popular with Republicans now thanks to the FBI. If the goal was to prevent him from running or make him very unpopular, the opposite might now be true.

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